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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27792154">You Are Sasha James</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitIsGr8/pseuds/KitIsGr8'>KitIsGr8</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Magnus Archives (Podcast)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drabble, In a sense, One Shot, POV Second Person, Written in one sitting, a bit plotless but ignore that, ignore the mistakes</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 14:42:06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>979</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27792154</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitIsGr8/pseuds/KitIsGr8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>You are Sasha James, and your life has been terrible ever since you recovered from Jane Prentiss.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You Are Sasha James</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Ok so AU where Sasha wasn't replaced by not!them, but it was more like there's 2 Sashas in the institute: Sasha and Not Sasha. There isn't much of a plot, it's more like a "hey wouldn't it be kinda wild if not!them didn't replace their victims but kept the other around?" so I followed this thread and here we are.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>You, Sasha James, are quite an interesting person. You’ve been working at the institute, what, 6, 7 years? Might be more, might be less, whose to say? You certainly can’t, you don’t fully remember when you started. Sure, you remember your first day working here, but simple things like dates and times allude you. They always do. At least, that’s what you tell yourself when someone says you turned your work in early when you’re so sure that you didn’t.</p><p>You remember when Jonathan Sims became the archivist. You were so surprised when Elias made the announcement on that fateful <s>Tuesday</s> <s>Wednesday</s> <s>Monday?</s> day, you were so sure that Gertude was going to make you the archivist. Especially since she seemed to like you, as much as Gertrude can like someone. To be honest, you were jealous of Sims. How come <i>he</i> got to be archivist and not you? You were clearly more skilled, more prepared, more worthy than Jonathan Sims, who saw Gertrude’s disorganization as a nuisance instead of a challenge. Tim thinks it’s sexism, and you’d be inclined to agree if it wasn’t for Elias’ meeting with you. </p><p>Elias pulled you in his office after he made his announcement to the institute. He wanted to clarify that ‘oh, he would’ve made you the archivist if it wasn’t for Jon’s incredible, natural talent’, and ‘not to take it personally, if his plans failed you’re going to be the next archivist’. Whatever that meant. You thought it was weird, but after what you’ve been through it’s one of the more mundane things that happened at the institute. It’s definitely duller than the worms.</p><p>One day, Martin was gone from work for <s>a week</s> <s>two weeks</s> <s>a month?</s> a while, and when he came back the worms came with him. Of course you don’t blame him for the worms, but if you were honest with yourself he did lead them to the institute. The worms, or Jane Prentiss as Jon tells you to call them, came in waves. At first, there was only a few, nothing much. Occasionally you’d spy one on the ground, which you’d swish before Martin could see, but soon the worms became more and more frequent. Then they all came at once, wriggling and writhing and burying and gnawing and piercing and tearing and destroying. Thank god you barely survived, and nobody died! You were so worried that Tim or Martin would’ve turned into the maggot ridden corpse than Jon claims was the cause of this. That’s when everything changed.</p><p>Everyone kept on saying strange things around you. They’d say you changed, and you seem different since they last saw you. At first, you’d smile and nod, rolling your eyes when they’re not looking. Of course you changed, you just survived a worm attack. Your scars were still healing, the silver bugs were still fresh in your mind. Then as time continued to turn, and the <s>days</s> <s>years</s> <s>weeks</s> months(?) changed, the comments never left. You asked the others if the comments happened to them, and they shook their head and went back to their paperwork. It was like you’re in a limbo, where time moved for nobody but yourself. Or were you in a bubble where time stood still? You can’t tell. After the insitute finished stocking fire extinguisher that they’ll never use, and people stopped sneaking glances at your scars, things went back to normal. If normal involved having work finished for you.</p><p>It first started with Rosie. When you were checking into the office, she said that you already clocked in. It was strange, but it’s fine, you must’ve forgot to check out. You ignored it. You really shouldn’t have. It only got worse from there. People started to thank you for things you never did. “Thank you for lending me your pen!” “Oh, thanks for photocopying the statement Sash, Jon would’ve had my head if you didn’t do it for me.” “Thanks for giving me that box of tea, it was nice of you to buy it for me.”. You always shook your head and say thank you for the compliment, but no, you never did that. But they always give you a weird look and assure you that no, you definitely did that. It’s gotten to a point where strangers you don’t even know approach you and act like your friend when you never met them before, and your friends are making inside jokes you never get.</p><p>It’s alienating. Everyone around you says things about you that isn’t you. They buy you a red scarf and say it’s your favorite color, but you hate red. They give you lavendar perfume, you’re allergic to lavender. They offer you their lunch with your favorite chips, but you hate, hate, HATE barbeque chips. It’s like they know a different you, someone who shares nothing but your name with you. It makes your skin crawl, it makes you angry, it makes you want to leave so you can find people that <i>actually</i> know you instead of the person everyone thinks you are. But you can never leave, you can’t muster up the courage to give Elias (or Jon, you don’t care who gets it at this point) a Resignation form. It’s better to keep a job that pays well than go looking for a new one. You can grit your teeth and barely tolerate the incorrect comments.</p><p>Today, you’re sure it’s today, you decided to renter the tunnels. You don’t know why you wanted to, or what caused you to want toexplore them again, but you were drawn to it like a moth to a flame. And then you ran into a monster.</p><p>Why am I telling you this? Why do I know your thoughts? Why do I look like you? Well, I’m not you. I’m not Sasha after all, it’s my job to know.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I know it isn't all that special or really anything bold and brash, but I think I just needed to write a fic about this. About someone impersonating someone else and how that feels. I feel like Sasha isn't 100% in character, and I don't remember early tma enough to give this fic justice, but again, mostly writing this for myslef. Thank you for reading this if you did, I wrote this mostly for me, but I'm glad that other people are interested in it.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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